Gill Hornby quit work to raise her four children. As she joins her husband Robert Harris in the bestseller lists she launches a passionate defence of stay-at-home mothers

Gill Hornby is critical of the new government drive to get more women back into work (Francesco Guidicini)

A
re you currently agonising over how best to achieve that work/life balance?
Are you a working mother wondering if you ought to make changes to your
employment in order to accommodate your family, or a stay-at-home mother
concerned that you are not making a financial contribution at home —
struggling with that eternal either/or?

Then no doubt you seized upon the message from Maria Miller, the equalities
minister, last week presented in the Women’s Business Council’s report into
“equalising the labour market participation rates of men and women”.

Don’t tell me you didn’t take any notice. It could have made all the
difference. You only have to hear its rallying cry to have your mind made up
for you: with more women in the workplace “the UK could further increase GDP
per capita growth by 0.5 percentage points per year”.